preview

Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And The Matrix

Decent Essays
Open Document

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the Wachowskis' The Matrix, the ideas of truth are that it can only be defined by how far one is willing to think outside of their own reality. Both the allegory and the film depict truth as a key of sorts for individuals to break free from their imprisonment. This can be seen by Neo's physical escape from the pod, which he had been unknowingly trapped in his whole life and his ascension to light after being swept down the pod's tube. The tube which swept Neo away is alike to the freed prisoner being "dragged...into the sunlight" by force in Plato's allegory; the two characters are being forced to have their senses enlightened once they've been freed from the chains on their bodies (but their minds still need to get adjusted to seeing the world in a new way). However, the allegory and the film differ in that Plato's prison is a physical cave which houses it's prisoners, while the matrix is a program that confines people's minds, thus is limitless while inside. With …show more content…

In the end, it all comes down to perception, whether or not if that perception of ours is skewed. This is why Plato stresses the importance of the "upward journey" which the freed prisoner takes, how "it is reached only with difficulty" because of the external factors which can alter our minds. It shows how the "intelligible realm" of our minds/ why we must constantly reflect upon and question what we think, even if it's hard to do, because we as humans constantly strive to better ourselves. Otherwise, on the most basic level of life, what else would be our purpose? The Matrix film demonstrates this purpose in Neo's search for an answer to "the question" he had been subconsciously asking, as he had always felt like something was wrong during his ignorance in the false

Get Access